I learrn something new every day . . .

We already know that I am not like the other Scadians.

So I recently took the office of chatelaine (and chronicler) in our Shire of Glen Linn.

I have been reading official chatelaine-type stuff.

I noticed that the office, and the addresses are spelled "chatelaine," but in the copy of the information from Society, it's spelled "chatelain."

Now many other people would let this go and use the more common chatelaine. Not me and not most of the universe. As the man in the Clint Easteood move said, "I gots to know!"

So what do I do?

I e-mail Dame Alys, the Society chatelaine, with whom I have worked before, and ask here.

The answer really surprised me:

Greetings!  The brief answer is that "chatelaine" is the feminine form and "chatelain" is the masculine.  It parallels "seneschal" and "seneschale", although few women use the feminine spelling.

My guess is that more men held the latter position and more women were chatelaines, so the gender-oriented spellings "stuck". 

I've tended  to stay with the concept that the default position is the masculine form.

That made my day (I am easy).

Once I get "maunche" and "manche" straightened out, I will be all good.

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